WKRP...Complete Series Coming Soon! (See Post #109) (1 Viewer)

[jimmyjet]

it would sure be nice - might put a little extra heat beneath some of the music holdouts

 

[jimmyjet]

i dont think the original music in a lot of shows is that important - but the replacement has to make sense.

lets take a look at happy days - the exact song is not necessary.

just keep the same mood. for example, if we cant license rockin robbin, then substitute with johnny be good.

in fact, we could even make it better and have the real song played !!

 

[Mike Frezon]

I think the postings in my link are quite clear: Mark Ayres had to lift the narration from the combined single track of the original release because he hadn't retained it as a separate track. You create a mask from the known music and remove it from the sound image, leaving just the dialogue and effects.

It has been my experience that anytime digital audio surgery of the type you are describing has been done, the remaining elements suffer greatly. Otherwise, the time and cost to do it "right" would be prohibitive.

 

[LeoA]

I think the postings in my link are quite clear: Mark Ayres had to lift the narration from the combined single track of the original release because he hadn't retained it as a separate track. You create a mask from the known music and remove it from the sound image, leaving just the dialogue and effects.

Perhaps I'm wrong, I don't even know what exactly this CD is, but it doesn't say so at your link that they did what you said they did. So my guess is that they had separate music and narrative tracks for this thing, found a higher quality source for the music years later, and combined it with the old separate narrative track for an enhanced release.

There's no way to do a nice job of separating two things recorded simultaneously. They didn't stop the music on WKRP each time Johnny opened his mouth. It kept on playing and was still recorded as they spoke.

I doubt even with meticulous and definitely expensive audio surgery like Mike mentions that it would yield a worthwhile result if they could somehow just isolate the sounds from the character's speech from the music playing.

It might even end up yielding not much, if any, savings over just paying the licensing cost. And while some fans might not care if the music was replaced in a well done manner (Just as a few probably didn't care or notice the cut job on the season 1 release that we actually got), many still would.

The best chance this series has, like said, is ending up with Time Life and being released largely intact with a minimum of editing.

 

[davidHartzog]

Great show, clearances nightmare. Sometimes it does matter if a song is replaced, i am thinking of Nights in White Satin getting the heave-ho in Wiseguy.

 

[Brian Himes]

I've been a way from this for a bit, but I'd like to address a few points here.

you have given me good explanations for the difficulty to overcome.

yet i still highly suspect that it will make it to the finish line !!

when i can see that the only problem is music rights issues, it is something that can be overcome. and i return right back to my original premise - people will pound their fists on the desk for a long time perhaps, but in the end, they will prefer something to nothing. and then get something like timeless, in which there are some restrictions.

The music rights is only part of the problem with WKRP. It is the entire soundtrack that is the problem. Again, just losing a song here or there is not going to be that simple. Ultimately, any music holdouts will have to be replaced with generic music (again the entire audio track for any scene with music replacement will have to be re-recorded from scratch) or scenes will have to be edited out all together. The bottom line cost for the kind of work that would need to be done to simply insert generic music is the other part of the problem. Therefore in order for it to 'make it to the finish line' as you put it just doesn't add up. I really don't see either Fox or Time Life being able to make it work and make it work effectively to satisfy the fans. The fans will be the first ones to cry foul if the job is done poorly.

 

[jimmyjet]

i agree with you that getting rid of dialogue is not gonna work.

that would get lots of complaints. especially with the fan base that i tend to see - emphatic ones !!

that really isnt tolerable in any show.

so the finish line is getting the music rights licensed.

it is doubtful that this show will make it soon, as there are too many other shows that they can still work on.

 

[albert_m2]

According to TV Shows on DVD... a complete series set is in the works from Shout!

http://tvshowsondvd.com/n/19780

 

[UniversalPhan]

And probably with a $150 price tag.

 

[jcroy]

Lately I've been noticing the original season 1 dvd set in the local $5 dump bins.

Perhaps this (rumored) upcoming complete series set release is prompting Fox to dump all their old inventory of season 1 sets?

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I'd rather pay $150 for an unedited set than what we got for 20 bucks with season 1.But I don't see unedited happening, unless Shout works some real magic.

 

[TravisR]

I'd rather pay $150 for an unedited set than what we got for 20 bucks with season 1.

Yeah and IF the price is $150 (it could be more and probably won't be less), that would be just under $40 a set. That's high but not crazy. Especially when you consider the amount of music licensing involved.

 

[Brian Himes]

Not to put a damper on things, but I'm skeptical that Shout has the clout to get every bit of music licensed. In all honesty, Pink Floyd and Led Zepplin will probably still be holdouts since in the past both groups have refused to allow any licensing no matter what the cost. If Pink Floyd's Dogs can't be licensed then Turkeys Away will have at least one edit in it.

Considering Shout's track record, I'm not going to hold my breath that this will be the stellar DVD release that we have all been wanting forever. I will however try to remain cautiously optimistic and hope for the best.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Yeah and IF the price is $150 (it could be more and probably won't be less), that would be just under $40 a set. That's high but not crazy. Especially when you consider the amount of music licensing involved.

Yeah, China Beach was $199 for the full four seasons, with virtually all the music intact. Ally McBeal with all music was also $199 for 5 seasons. And when it comes out later this year, I expect The Wonder Years will be somewhere around $199, as well.

And in the case of full, unedited seasons with most or all the music intact, I understand the expense, and don't mind paying. Music rights for home video suck in the US, so someone has to pay if the shows are going to be released unedited.

I would have felt better if that news item had said "Time-Life/Starvista", but Shout has pulled off miracles with music and licensing before, whether it was Freaks and Geeks with all original music, Get A Life with REM's Stand intact, or licensing previously unobtainable MST3K episodes. I hope they pul the same miracle off with WKRP

 

[Frank Soyke]

I'd still take a handful of replacements than not at all or ALL replacements. I hate Floyd anyway.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Not to put a damper on things, but I'm skeptical that Shout has the clout to get every bit of music licensed. In all honesty, Pink Floyd and Led Zepplin will probably still be holdouts since in the past both groups have refused to allow any licensing no matter what the cost. If Pink Floyd's Dogs can't be licensed then Turkeys Away will have at least one edit in it.

Considering Shout's track record, I'm not going to hold my breath that this will be the stellar DVD release that we have all been wanting forever. I will however try to remain cautiously optimistic and hope for the best.

I dunno, Zeppelin has been used in commercials this decade, while Floyd has been used in Cold Case, at the very least.

The rights were probably prohibitively expensive, like the $250,000 Beatles song in Mad Men, but those two bands are getting a bit more loose in how their stuff is used.

 

[JoeDoakes]

I'm really wondering about the music rights. From what's been showing on ME-TV, it seems that more music is there than there was before. I wonder if Fox has been clearing, at least, some or most of the music.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

I'm not expecting everything to be restored, but I'm pretty confident that what we'll ultimately get will be a vast improvement over the previous Season 1 travesty (a.k.a. there's nowhere to go but 'up').

Who knows, perhaps the universal love for the "Turkeys Away" episode, basically the signature episode of the series, might even sway things, in regard to the Pink Floyd issue.

 

[albert_m2]

Led Zeppelin was used in that Revolution show recently and obviously didn't mind selling cars with their music...

 

[LouA]

This is good news. I'll be buying this Obviously , the 70's is the direction Shout Family is going . I'll miss the 1950's B&W releases , but there are a number of 70's shows I enjoy .